A Little Progress

All I have left of the mowing is the western section near the property line and the road frontage, so I thought it was time to repot some mustard seedlings that are overgrowing their 8 cm nursery pots.  I have a good procedure for setting up pots, so I'll lay it out...see what you think of it.

First I take some pots that are overgrown with grass and weeds and clean them out...dump the contents in a wheelbarrow, sort out the twigs I use for drainage, the weeds and grass, and the old landscaping cloth.  The twigs, weeds, and grass go into the pile for shredding...maybe tomorrow on that.  The old landscaping cloth goes into the regular trash if it's deteriorated, along with any plant markers I run across.  I cut up plastic containers to use for plant markers.

Then the soil gets mixed with a little water, compost, and rock powder.  Mix it all up with a shovel till it's all nicely moistened and blended, then dump it all in a big plastic trash barrel for fallowing. The 34 cm pots get washed with a strong jet of water and some rubbing to get rid of PPN eggs, etc.  Then they're set in the sun for a while.  I got three done this morning, about what I need to pot up the mustard seedlings.

PPN will attack mustard roots, but they much prefer okra and eggplant.  The mustard can usually keep on in spite of them, so I'm planting a lot of it right now...I had a really bad plague of PPN this rainy season in my containers.

All I have to do on those three containers now is to lay some pine twigs in the bottom, put in a piece of landscaping cloth to block the soil from escaping out the drain holes, and fill them up with previously fallowed soil.  Then plant with mustard seedlings and mulch to protect the soil from the sun, record everything in my notebooks, and I'm done.  It sounds like a lot, but gardening relaxes me...and my methods usually work very well.  The mustard seedlings I planted about a week ago will be ready for leaf picking soon.

I'll be planting lettuce, kale, bunching onion, and pole beans in the coming weeks...plus a lot of miscellaneous herbs, greens, and hopefully some carrots.  It all depends on how good the air is, and how I feel.  But I always manage to plant something...been doing that for a long time now.  I'm driven by my love of good food in particular...today I picked some purslane that was growing out of my compost pile and more chilis from my pepper bushes.  The purslane is at its best when you pick it just as it's starting to show a few flowers.  A little parboiling, some oil and pepper vinegar, and you have a nutritious and tasty dish to go with anything you cook. The whole plant is good, except for the roots of course.  Once it gets a foothold in your garden, you'll never have to replant it...it makes incredible numbers of tiny seeds that seem to show up everywhere.  Some call it a weed, I call it a gift....so tasty and soothing to the digestion.  It can be used in salads, soups, and stir fries...or as a side dish after a little parboiling.

Sometimes it pays to appreciate what you already have instead of constantly striving for more of everything.